Tag: Emily Blunt

  • Actor Emily Blunt criticized for calling waitress ‘enormous’, issues apology for 2012 fatphobic remark

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Actor Emily Blunt is under fire for a resurfaced interview in which she referred to a Chili’s waitress as “enormous”, according to Page Six.

    The actress, 40, was a guest on the UK’s ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ in September 2012 when she decided to share a story about how she dined at one of the chain restaurant’s locations in Louisiana while filming the film ‘Looper’.

    “The girl who was serving me was enormous,” Blunt told the namesake host. “I think she got freebie meals at Chili’s.”

    According to Page Six, though Ross, 62, chimed in to note that there’s “nothing wrong with that,” he had previously quipped that “when you go to Chili’s, you can see why so many of [their] American friends are enormous.” Mimicking the server’s Southern drawl, Blunt said the woman asked her, “Did anyone ever tell you you look a lot like Emily Blunt?”

    “And I said, ‘I have heard that, yes,’” she recalled responding, to which the staffer then asked, “Are you Emily Blunt?”

    The ‘Devil Wears Prada’ actor claimed that after the woman verified her identity, the woman exclaimed, “What are y’all doing here?!” with enthusiasm.

    Emily Blunt being blatantly fatphobic wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card but here we are pic.twitter.com/iD4fyMFF0t
    — orca supporter (@justmarahere) October 19, 2023
    The 2012 interview clip has reappeared on the internet, and many Twitter (now X) users are upset with Emily Blunt. She’s been labelled “fatphobic,” which means she made fun of or disrespected someone because of their size.

    “Emily Blunt being blatantly fatphobic wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card but here we are,” one critic posted alongside a clip of the moment.

    “Scratch her off my crush list.???,” “JFC Emily, we were rooting for you too. Smh,” “Why would she described [sic] her like that? That was so unnecessary” and “its so easy to tell when people honestly believe waitstaff are below them/lesser members of society” were just some of the remarks that followed.

    The ‘Oppenheimer’ star has since released a statement, telling Page Six her “jaw was on the floor” when she watched a video of her appearance.

    “I’m appalled that I would say something so insensitive, hurtful and unrelated to whatever story I was trying to tell on a talk show,” Blunt lamented, reported Page Six. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    WASHINGTON: Actor Emily Blunt is under fire for a resurfaced interview in which she referred to a Chili’s waitress as “enormous”, according to Page Six.

    The actress, 40, was a guest on the UK’s ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ in September 2012 when she decided to share a story about how she dined at one of the chain restaurant’s locations in Louisiana while filming the film ‘Looper’.

    “The girl who was serving me was enormous,” Blunt told the namesake host. “I think she got freebie meals at Chili’s.”googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    According to Page Six, though Ross, 62, chimed in to note that there’s “nothing wrong with that,” he had previously quipped that “when you go to Chili’s, you can see why so many of [their] American friends are enormous.” Mimicking the server’s Southern drawl, Blunt said the woman asked her, “Did anyone ever tell you you look a lot like Emily Blunt?”

    “And I said, ‘I have heard that, yes,’” she recalled responding, to which the staffer then asked, “Are you Emily Blunt?”

    The ‘Devil Wears Prada’ actor claimed that after the woman verified her identity, the woman exclaimed, “What are y’all doing here?!” with enthusiasm.

    Emily Blunt being blatantly fatphobic wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card but here we are pic.twitter.com/iD4fyMFF0t
    — orca supporter (@justmarahere) October 19, 2023
    The 2012 interview clip has reappeared on the internet, and many Twitter (now X) users are upset with Emily Blunt. She’s been labelled “fatphobic,” which means she made fun of or disrespected someone because of their size.

    “Emily Blunt being blatantly fatphobic wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card but here we are,” one critic posted alongside a clip of the moment.

    “Scratch her off my crush list.???,” “JFC Emily, we were rooting for you too. Smh,” “Why would she described [sic] her like that? That was so unnecessary” and “its so easy to tell when people honestly believe waitstaff are below them/lesser members of society” were just some of the remarks that followed.

    The ‘Oppenheimer’ star has since released a statement, telling Page Six her “jaw was on the floor” when she watched a video of her appearance.

    “I’m appalled that I would say something so insensitive, hurtful and unrelated to whatever story I was trying to tell on a talk show,” Blunt lamented, reported Page Six. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • In ‘Oppenheimer,’ Christopher Nolan builds a thrilling, serious blockbuster for adults

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: Christopher Nolan has never been one to take the easy or straightforward route while making a movie.

    He shoots on large-format film with large, cumbersome cameras to get the best possible cinematic image. He prefers practical effects over computer-generated ones and real locations over soundstages — even when that means recreating an atomic explosion in the harsh winds of the New Mexico desert in the middle of the night for “Oppenheimer,” out July 21.

    Though, despite internet rumors, they did not detonate an actual nuclear weapon.

    And as for the biography that inspired his newest film, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s riveting, linear narrative “American Prometheus” was simply the starting point from which Nolan crafted a beguiling labyrinth of suspense and drama.

    It’s why, in his two decades working in Hollywood, Nolan has become a franchise unto himself — the rare auteur writer-director who makes films that are both intellectually stimulating and commercial, accounting for more than $5 billion in box office receipts. That combination is part of the reason why he’s able to attract Oscar winners and movie stars not just to headline his films, but also to turn out for just a scene or two.

    “We’ve all been so intoxicated by his films,” said Emily Blunt, who plays J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty. “That exploration of huge themes in an entertaining way doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t happen. That depth, the depth of the material, and yet on this massive epic scale.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Oppenheimer’ cast leaves London premiere midway as Hollywood stars join writer strike

    Official: Christopher Nolan just confirmed the cast of #Oppenheimer have LEFT the U.K. premiere due to the #SAGAFTRA strikeThe first time in 60 years that writers and actors are striking together. #SAGStrike pic.twitter.com/BQBo2jRfCd
    — The Weekly Cut (@weeklycut) July 13, 2023
    In the vast and complex story of the brilliant theoretical physicist who oversaw the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, Nolan saw exciting possibilities to play with genre and form. There was the race to develop it before the Germans did, espionage, romance, domestic turmoil, a courtroom drama, bruised egos, political machinations, communist panic, and the burden of having created something that could destroy the world.

    And then there was the man himself, beloved by most but hated by enough, who, after achieving icon status in American society, saw his reputation and sense of self annihilated by the very institutions that built him.

    “It’s such an ambitious story to tell,” said Matt Damon, who plays Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. “Reading the script, I had the same feeling I had when I read ‘Interstellar,’ which was: ‘This is great. How the hell is he going to do this?’”

    It’s not so disconnected from Nolan’s other films, either. As critic Tom Shone noted in his book about the director, “Looked at one way, Nolan’s films are all allegories of men who first find their salvation in structure only to find themselves betrayed or engulfed by it.”

    Nolan turned to Cillian Murphy to take on the gargantuan task of portraying Oppenheimer. Murphy had already acted in five Nolan films, including the Batman trilogy, “Dunkirk” and “Inception,” but this would be his first time as a lead — something he had secretly pined for.

    “You feel a responsibility, but then a great hunger and excitement to try and do it, to see where you can get,” said Murphy, who prepped extensively for six months before filming, working closely with Nolan throughout. “It was an awful lot of work, but I loved it. There is this kind of frisson, this energy when you’re on a Chris Nolan set about the potential for what you’re going to achieve.”

    It would be an all-consuming role that would require some physical transformation to approximate that famously thin silhouette. A complex, contradictory figure, Oppenheimer emerged from a somewhat awkward youth to become a renaissance man who seemed to carry equal passion for the Bhagavad Gita, Proust, physics, languages, New Mexico, philosophical questions about disarmament and the perfectly mixed martini. But Murphy knew he was in safe hands with Nolan.

    “He’s the most natural director I’ve ever worked with. And the notes that he gives to an actor, are quite remarkable. How he can gently bring you to a different place with your performance is quite stunning in such a subtle, low-key, understated way,” Murphy said. “It can have a profound effect on the way you look at a scene from one take to another take.”

    READ MORE | Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to be free of CGI shots 

    Nolan wrote the main timeline of the film in the first person, to represent Oppenheimer’s subjective experience.

    “We want to see everything through Oppenheimer’s point of view,” Nolan said. “That’s a huge challenge for an actor to take on because they’re having to worry about the performance, the truth of the performance, but also make sure that that’s always open to the audience.”

    The other timeline, filmed in black and white, is more objective and focused on Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a founding member of the Atomic Energy Commission and a supporter of the development of the more destructive hydrogen bomb.

    “Oppenheimer” is Nolan’s first R-rated film since 2002’s “Insomnia,” which after years of working exclusively in PG-13, he’s comfortable with. It fits the gravity of the material.

    “We’re dealing with the most serious and adult story you could imagine — very important, dramatic events that changed the world and defined the world we live in today,” Nolan said. “You don’t want to compromise in any way.”

    This image released by Universal Pictures shows Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves, left, and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in a scene from “Oppenheimer.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

    Much of the filming took place in New Mexico, including at the real Los Alamos laboratory where thousands of scientists, technicians and their families lived and worked for two years in the effort to develop the bomb. Nolan enlisted many of his frequent behind-the-scenes collaborators, including his wife and producer Emma Thomas, cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, composer Ludwig Göransson and special effects supervisors Scott Fisher and Andrew Jackson, as well as some newcomers like production designer Ruth de Jong and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick to help bring this world to life.

    “It was a very focused set — fun set as well, not too serious. But the work was serious, the sweating of the details was serious,” Blunt said. “Everyone needs to kind of match Chris’ excellence, or want to.”

    When it came to recreating the Trinity test, Oppenheimer’s chosen name for the first nuclear detonation, art and life blended in a visceral way.

    “We wanted to put the audience there in that bunker,” Nolan said. “That meant really trying to make these things as beautiful and frightening and awe inspiring as they would have been to the people at the time.”

    Though no real nukes were used, they did stage a lot of real explosions to approximate the blindingly bright atomic fire and mushroom cloud.

    “To do those safely in a real environment out in the nighttime desert, there’s a degree of discipline and focus and adrenaline and just executing that for the film that echoes and mirrors what these guys went through on the grandest scale in a really interesting way,” Nolan said. “I felt everybody had that very, very tight sense of tension and focus around all those shooting nights.”

    The weather also “did what it needed to do, as per history,” Murphy said, as the wind picked up and whipped around the set.

    “I’m rumored to be very lucky with the weather and it’s not the case. It’s just that we decide to shoot whatever the weather,” Nolan said. “In the case of the Trinity test, it was essential, central to the story that this big storm rolls in with tremendous drama. And it did. That really made the sequence come to life.”

    He added: “The extremity of it put me very much in the mindset of what it must have been like for these guys. It really felt like we were out in it.”

    | Behind the scene #Oppenheimer pic.twitter.com/csfNjAfmJ9
    — Christopher Nolan Art & Updates (@NolanAnalyst) July 14, 2023
    Then, of course, there is the experience of watching “Oppenheimer.”

    “When you’re making a movie, I feel like you’re on the inside looking out,” Blunt said. “It’s really overwhelming to see it reflected back at you, especially one of this magnitude. … I just felt like my breastplate was going to shatter, it was so intense.”

    The hope is that when “Oppenheimer” is unleashed on the world, audiences will be as invested and will seek it out on the biggest screen they can find. The film has a run in IMAX theaters around the country, not something often afforded serious-minded, R-rated movies in the middle of the busy summer season. But this is also the essential Nolan impossibility. As more and more auteurs have had to compromise — to either go smaller or team with streamers to get the kind of budget they might once have had at studios, like even Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese have had to do this year — Nolan continues to make his movies on the grandest scale.

    “Each of his films has been revolutionary in their own way,” Murphy said. “It’s an event every time he releases a film, and rightly so.”

    NEW YORK: Christopher Nolan has never been one to take the easy or straightforward route while making a movie.

    He shoots on large-format film with large, cumbersome cameras to get the best possible cinematic image. He prefers practical effects over computer-generated ones and real locations over soundstages — even when that means recreating an atomic explosion in the harsh winds of the New Mexico desert in the middle of the night for “Oppenheimer,” out July 21.

    Though, despite internet rumors, they did not detonate an actual nuclear weapon.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    And as for the biography that inspired his newest film, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s riveting, linear narrative “American Prometheus” was simply the starting point from which Nolan crafted a beguiling labyrinth of suspense and drama.

    It’s why, in his two decades working in Hollywood, Nolan has become a franchise unto himself — the rare auteur writer-director who makes films that are both intellectually stimulating and commercial, accounting for more than $5 billion in box office receipts. That combination is part of the reason why he’s able to attract Oscar winners and movie stars not just to headline his films, but also to turn out for just a scene or two.

    “We’ve all been so intoxicated by his films,” said Emily Blunt, who plays J. Robert Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty. “That exploration of huge themes in an entertaining way doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t happen. That depth, the depth of the material, and yet on this massive epic scale.”

    ALSO READ | ‘Oppenheimer’ cast leaves London premiere midway as Hollywood stars join writer strike

    Official: Christopher Nolan just confirmed the cast of #Oppenheimer have LEFT the U.K. premiere due to the #SAGAFTRA strike
    The first time in 60 years that writers and actors are striking together. #SAGStrike pic.twitter.com/BQBo2jRfCd
    — The Weekly Cut (@weeklycut) July 13, 2023
    In the vast and complex story of the brilliant theoretical physicist who oversaw the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, Nolan saw exciting possibilities to play with genre and form. There was the race to develop it before the Germans did, espionage, romance, domestic turmoil, a courtroom drama, bruised egos, political machinations, communist panic, and the burden of having created something that could destroy the world.

    And then there was the man himself, beloved by most but hated by enough, who, after achieving icon status in American society, saw his reputation and sense of self annihilated by the very institutions that built him.

    “It’s such an ambitious story to tell,” said Matt Damon, who plays Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. “Reading the script, I had the same feeling I had when I read ‘Interstellar,’ which was: ‘This is great. How the hell is he going to do this?’”

    It’s not so disconnected from Nolan’s other films, either. As critic Tom Shone noted in his book about the director, “Looked at one way, Nolan’s films are all allegories of men who first find their salvation in structure only to find themselves betrayed or engulfed by it.”

    Nolan turned to Cillian Murphy to take on the gargantuan task of portraying Oppenheimer. Murphy had already acted in five Nolan films, including the Batman trilogy, “Dunkirk” and “Inception,” but this would be his first time as a lead — something he had secretly pined for.

    “You feel a responsibility, but then a great hunger and excitement to try and do it, to see where you can get,” said Murphy, who prepped extensively for six months before filming, working closely with Nolan throughout. “It was an awful lot of work, but I loved it. There is this kind of frisson, this energy when you’re on a Chris Nolan set about the potential for what you’re going to achieve.”

    It would be an all-consuming role that would require some physical transformation to approximate that famously thin silhouette. A complex, contradictory figure, Oppenheimer emerged from a somewhat awkward youth to become a renaissance man who seemed to carry equal passion for the Bhagavad Gita, Proust, physics, languages, New Mexico, philosophical questions about disarmament and the perfectly mixed martini. But Murphy knew he was in safe hands with Nolan.

    “He’s the most natural director I’ve ever worked with. And the notes that he gives to an actor, are quite remarkable. How he can gently bring you to a different place with your performance is quite stunning in such a subtle, low-key, understated way,” Murphy said. “It can have a profound effect on the way you look at a scene from one take to another take.”

    READ MORE | Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer to be free of CGI shots 

    Nolan wrote the main timeline of the film in the first person, to represent Oppenheimer’s subjective experience.

    “We want to see everything through Oppenheimer’s point of view,” Nolan said. “That’s a huge challenge for an actor to take on because they’re having to worry about the performance, the truth of the performance, but also make sure that that’s always open to the audience.”

    The other timeline, filmed in black and white, is more objective and focused on Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), a founding member of the Atomic Energy Commission and a supporter of the development of the more destructive hydrogen bomb.

    “Oppenheimer” is Nolan’s first R-rated film since 2002’s “Insomnia,” which after years of working exclusively in PG-13, he’s comfortable with. It fits the gravity of the material.

    “We’re dealing with the most serious and adult story you could imagine — very important, dramatic events that changed the world and defined the world we live in today,” Nolan said. “You don’t want to compromise in any way.”

    This image released by Universal Pictures shows Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves, left, and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in a scene from “Oppenheimer.” (Universal Pictures via AP)

    Much of the filming took place in New Mexico, including at the real Los Alamos laboratory where thousands of scientists, technicians and their families lived and worked for two years in the effort to develop the bomb. Nolan enlisted many of his frequent behind-the-scenes collaborators, including his wife and producer Emma Thomas, cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, composer Ludwig Göransson and special effects supervisors Scott Fisher and Andrew Jackson, as well as some newcomers like production designer Ruth de Jong and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick to help bring this world to life.

    “It was a very focused set — fun set as well, not too serious. But the work was serious, the sweating of the details was serious,” Blunt said. “Everyone needs to kind of match Chris’ excellence, or want to.”

    When it came to recreating the Trinity test, Oppenheimer’s chosen name for the first nuclear detonation, art and life blended in a visceral way.

    “We wanted to put the audience there in that bunker,” Nolan said. “That meant really trying to make these things as beautiful and frightening and awe inspiring as they would have been to the people at the time.”

    Though no real nukes were used, they did stage a lot of real explosions to approximate the blindingly bright atomic fire and mushroom cloud.

    “To do those safely in a real environment out in the nighttime desert, there’s a degree of discipline and focus and adrenaline and just executing that for the film that echoes and mirrors what these guys went through on the grandest scale in a really interesting way,” Nolan said. “I felt everybody had that very, very tight sense of tension and focus around all those shooting nights.”

    The weather also “did what it needed to do, as per history,” Murphy said, as the wind picked up and whipped around the set.

    “I’m rumored to be very lucky with the weather and it’s not the case. It’s just that we decide to shoot whatever the weather,” Nolan said. “In the case of the Trinity test, it was essential, central to the story that this big storm rolls in with tremendous drama. And it did. That really made the sequence come to life.”

    He added: “The extremity of it put me very much in the mindset of what it must have been like for these guys. It really felt like we were out in it.”

    | Behind the scene #Oppenheimer pic.twitter.com/csfNjAfmJ9
    — Christopher Nolan Art & Updates (@NolanAnalyst) July 14, 2023
    Then, of course, there is the experience of watching “Oppenheimer.”

    “When you’re making a movie, I feel like you’re on the inside looking out,” Blunt said. “It’s really overwhelming to see it reflected back at you, especially one of this magnitude. … I just felt like my breastplate was going to shatter, it was so intense.”

    The hope is that when “Oppenheimer” is unleashed on the world, audiences will be as invested and will seek it out on the biggest screen they can find. The film has a run in IMAX theaters around the country, not something often afforded serious-minded, R-rated movies in the middle of the busy summer season. But this is also the essential Nolan impossibility. As more and more auteurs have had to compromise — to either go smaller or team with streamers to get the kind of budget they might once have had at studios, like even Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese have had to do this year — Nolan continues to make his movies on the grandest scale.

    “Each of his films has been revolutionary in their own way,” Murphy said. “It’s an event every time he releases a film, and rightly so.”

  • Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer-led series ‘The English’ to premier on Prime Video in November

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Western drama series “The English”, starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, will start streaming on Prime Video from November 11.

    According to a press release issued by the streaming platform, all six episodes of the limited series will be released together.

    “The English” will make its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival as their series special presentation on October 15.

    The series is a co-production with Amazon Studios and BBC, in association with All3Media International. Billed as an “epic chase Western”, the show hails from writer and director Hugo Blick.

    The series takes the core themes of identity and revenge to tell a uniquely compelling parable on race, power, and love.

    “An aristocratic Englishwoman, Lady Cornelia Locke (Blunt), and a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout, Eli Whipp (Spencer), come together in 1890 middle America to cross a violent landscape built on dreams and blood. Both of them have a clear sense of their destiny, but neither is aware that it is rooted in a shared past,” the plotline reads.

    The series’ ensemble cast includes Rafe Spall, Tom Hughes, Toby Jones, and Ciaran Hinds. “The English” is produced by Drama Republic Ltd and Eight Rooks Ltd. Blunt also serves as executive producer, alongside Greg Brenman for Drama Republic. Colin Wratten is attached as the producer.

    LOS ANGELES: Western drama series “The English”, starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, will start streaming on Prime Video from November 11.

    According to a press release issued by the streaming platform, all six episodes of the limited series will be released together.

    “The English” will make its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival as their series special presentation on October 15.

    The series is a co-production with Amazon Studios and BBC, in association with All3Media International. Billed as an “epic chase Western”, the show hails from writer and director Hugo Blick.

    The series takes the core themes of identity and revenge to tell a uniquely compelling parable on race, power, and love.

    “An aristocratic Englishwoman, Lady Cornelia Locke (Blunt), and a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout, Eli Whipp (Spencer), come together in 1890 middle America to cross a violent landscape built on dreams and blood. Both of them have a clear sense of their destiny, but neither is aware that it is rooted in a shared past,” the plotline reads.

    The series’ ensemble cast includes Rafe Spall, Tom Hughes, Toby Jones, and Ciaran Hinds. “The English” is produced by Drama Republic Ltd and Eight Rooks Ltd. Blunt also serves as executive producer, alongside Greg Brenman for Drama Republic. Colin Wratten is attached as the producer.

  • Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer-led series ‘The English’ to premiere on Prime Video in November

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Western drama series “The English”, starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, will start streaming on Prime Video from November 11.

    According to a press release issued by the streaming platform, all six episodes of the limited series will be released together.

    “The English” will make its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival as their series special presentation on October 15.

    The series is a co-production with Amazon Studios and BBC, in association with All3Media International. Billed as an “epic chase Western”, the show hails from writer and director Hugo Blick.

    The series takes the core themes of identity and revenge to tell a uniquely compelling parable on race, power, and love.

    “An aristocratic Englishwoman, Lady Cornelia Locke (Blunt), and a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout, Eli Whipp (Spencer), come together in 1890 middle America to cross a violent landscape built on dreams and blood. Both of them have a clear sense of their destiny, but neither is aware that it is rooted in a shared past,” the plotline reads.

    The series’ ensemble cast includes Rafe Spall, Tom Hughes, Toby Jones, and Ciaran Hinds. “The English” is produced by Drama Republic Ltd and Eight Rooks Ltd. Blunt also serves as executive producer, alongside Greg Brenman for Drama Republic. Colin Wratten is attached as the producer.

    LOS ANGELES: Western drama series “The English”, starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer, will start streaming on Prime Video from November 11.

    According to a press release issued by the streaming platform, all six episodes of the limited series will be released together.

    “The English” will make its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival as their series special presentation on October 15.

    The series is a co-production with Amazon Studios and BBC, in association with All3Media International. Billed as an “epic chase Western”, the show hails from writer and director Hugo Blick.

    The series takes the core themes of identity and revenge to tell a uniquely compelling parable on race, power, and love.

    “An aristocratic Englishwoman, Lady Cornelia Locke (Blunt), and a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout, Eli Whipp (Spencer), come together in 1890 middle America to cross a violent landscape built on dreams and blood. Both of them have a clear sense of their destiny, but neither is aware that it is rooted in a shared past,” the plotline reads.

    The series’ ensemble cast includes Rafe Spall, Tom Hughes, Toby Jones, and Ciaran Hinds. “The English” is produced by Drama Republic Ltd and Eight Rooks Ltd. Blunt also serves as executive producer, alongside Greg Brenman for Drama Republic. Colin Wratten is attached as the producer.

  • ‘Captain America’ star Chris Evans in talks for Pain Hustlers

    By Express News Service

    Actor Chris Evans is in final talks for the upcoming film Pain Hustlers starring Emily Blunt.According to a report by Deadline, the streaming giant Netflix has bagged the film’s global rights for $50 million during the French Riviera Film Fest.

    However, the streaming platform is yet to make an official announcement regarding Evan’s collaboration in the film. Pain Hustlers is written by Wells Tower and directed by David Yates. The report notes that the film revolves around Liza Drake (played by Emily Blunt), a high-school drop-out dreaming of a better life for her and her young daughter.

    She gets a job with a failing pharmaceutical startup in a yellowing strip mall in Central Florida. Her charm, guts and drive catapult the company and her into the high life, where she soon finds herself at the centre of a criminal conspiracy with deadly consequences.

    The film is expected to go on floors in late August. The genre is said to be similar to those of The Big Short, American Hustle and The Wolf of Wall Street. Pain Hustlers is produced by Lawrence Grey under the Grey Matter Productions banner. Meanwhile, Evans is reuniting with the Russo Brothers after The Avengers, Captain America as well as Netflix’s The Gray Man. Evan recently wrapped up production for Ghosted, directed by Dexter Fletcher. 

  • Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie join Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’

    By Express News Service

    Actors Rami Malek, Florence Pugh and Benny Safdie are the latest to join Christopher Nolan’s next, Oppenheimer. The actors join previously announced cast members Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr and Matt Damon in the film.

    The film will focus on the life of the physicist whose role in running the Los Alamos Laboratory and involvement in the Manhattan Project has led him to be called the ‘father of the atomic bomb.’ The official description of the film reads, ‘epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it’. Murphy is set to star as J Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife Katherine.

    Pugh will essay the role of Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party of the United States who has an off-and-on affair with Oppenheimer and was the cause of major security concerns for government officials. Safdie will play Edward Teller, the Hungarian physicist who is known as the father of the hydrogen bomb and a member of the Manhattan Project, the US research initiative that developed the first atomic bomb. Malek will feature in the movie as a scientist.

    Oppenheimer is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The film is written by Nolan and he also produces along with Emma Thomas and Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven. Oppenheimer is scheduled to hit the screens on July 21, 2023.

  • Rami Malek, Florence Pugh and Benny Safdie join Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winner Rami Malek, “Black Widow” star Florence Pugh and actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie are the latest additions to “Oppenheimer”, Christopher Nolan’s next directorial project.

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, the three actors join previously announced cast members Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr and Matt Damon in the film.

    The Universal Pictures project is a biopic of J Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist remembered as one of the fathers of the atom bomb.

    Murphy is set to star as J Robert Oppenheimer and Emily Blunt as his wife Katherine.

    Pugh will essay the role of Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party of the United States who has an off-and-on affair with Oppenheimer and was the cause of major security concerns for government officials.

    Safdie will play Edward Teller, the Hungarian physicist who is known as the father of the hydrogen bomb and a member of the Manhattan Project, the US research initiative that developed the first atomic bomb.

    Malek will feature in the movie as a scientist.

    “Oppenheimer” is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin.

    Christopher Nolan will write and direct the film, while his creative partner and wife Emma Thomas will produce with Charles Roven of Atlas Entertainment.

    The studio has described the film as an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it”.

    Nolan’s last film was “Tenet”, the 2020 globetrotting espionage film starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Kenneth Branagh and Elizabeth Debicki, among others. 

  • Emily Blunt joins Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Actor Emily Blunt has bagged veteran filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s new film ‘Oppenheimer’.

    As per The Hollywood Reporter, Emily will star opposite Cillian Murphy in the Universal project, which is the biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who is remembered as one of the fathers of the atom bomb.

    Nolan will write and helm ‘Oppenheimer’, which is based on ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer’ by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. Published in 2005, the book won the Pulitzer Prize.

    The upcoming project is touted as an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.”

    July 21, 2023, has been scheduled as the release date of ‘Oppenheimer’. 

  • All aboard the Jungle Cruise

    By Express News Service

    Jungle Cruise promises everything we associate with Disney titles: adventure, eye-popping visuals, and loads of action. For filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, who adapted this Disney ride into a live-action spectacle, it was essential to keep the essence and tone of the ride intact. “The Jungle Cruise ride is loved by many, not only because it’s been there for a long time but because it’s one of the only rides that the whole family can enjoy together,” says Collet-Serra. “You can bring a baby and you can bring your grandma; so, in a way, we wanted to make a film that reflected that… A film that the whole family could enjoy together. That was the starting point for us.”

    Talking about the process of inheriting the ride’s entertainment value into the screenplay, the filmmaker adds, “The comedy of the ride has evolved through the years. So, we took that as a tonal guideline, and from then on, we built the mythology and created characters and situations that would put the audience on the ride and expand on the experience of what they go through at Disneyland. This is a ride they can experience in theatres.”

    Bringing the exotic world of Jungle Cruise into a film was no walk in the park. There needed to be synergy between every department—from production design to cinematography, costumes to visual effects. “This movie takes place in the early 1900s in the Amazon jungle, so we wanted to make a movie that was vibrant, full of colour, and rich. It’s hard to make a movie in the actual Amazon, so we had to bring those colours and textures to our stage, and the only tools that we had were the production design and the costumes,” Collet-Serra says, adding that the team was cautious about visually representing the Amazon accurately. “We had a cultural advisor that made sure that everything was properly represented. The Tupi language was spoken there many years ago, so we made our own version based on that old language to give our characters an added sense of reality.”

    On the visual choices executed by Flavio Labiano’s cinematography, the director reveals that they built their “own lenses to achieve a certain warm quality.” He adds, “Everything was designed to bring a hot and vibrant look from the Amazon. Flavio is a great collaborator; he shoots beautifully and makes the actors look amazing. He has shot many movies in Latin America, and he knows exactly how it’s supposed to look.”

    The filmmaker adds that creating ‘the Jungle village’ set was both an exciting and difficult task to accomplish. Collet-Serra intended the set to look awe-inspiring while also invoking an eerie feeling at first sight. “We wanted to build a set that showed a lot of scope and that had a ‘wow’ factor during the reveal. It needed to strike fear at first glance but then, feel warm once you are inside it. We felt that the best way to achieve that was to put the village up in the trees, very high up, and then build all these platforms that interconnected all of the little huts where the locals live.”

    Despite the technical difficulties, the director believes “it was worth it.” The director shares that Industrial Light & Magic, the VFX studio behind Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Wars, came up with a novel technique to ease the creation of computer-generated imagery. “Two tiny infrared cameras were attached to the camera to capture the actors and their performance in real-time. The actors didn’t have to wear the usual helmet cameras to capture their performances. They could act normally within the scene, and then the CG skin would be put over them.

    hat was really groundbreaking, and it really freed us to shoot their performances.” Building the eponymous Jungle Cruise, the steamboat named La Quila, was of paramount importance to the filmmaker—after all, it’s the film’s titular character. “La Quila is certainly a character in the film. For me, it was very important to preserve a little bit of what the boats in the ride are like,” Collet-Serra says. “Jean-Vincent Puzos (production designer) did a phenomenal job of designing La Quila. He brought all the little details, textures, and colours that made the boat the way I had envisioned it. It was put together in a way that, once you step away from it, it’s both beautiful and practical to behold.”

  • Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt returning for ‘Jungle Cruise’ sequel

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Actors Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are set to return for the second installment to Disney’s hit film ‘Jungle Cruise’, based on the theme park ride.

    As per Variety, Johnson and Blunt will be back for another adventure as the pun-obsessed riverboat captain Frank Wolff and the brave explorer Dr Lily Houghton, respectively. Director Jaume Collet-Serra is expected to return.

    Executive producer Scott Sheldon and producers John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia are also expected to return for the upcoming sequel.

    Michael Green, who co-wrote ‘Jungle Cruise’ with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, will write the second installment.

    ‘Jungle Cruise’ had released on July 30, both in theatres and on Disney Plus Premier Access, for an additional price tag of USD 30. In its opening weekend, it took in USD 34.2 million in ticket sales from theatres and USD 30 million from Disney Plus, the company reported.

    The film kept afloat at the box office, climbing its way to USD 100 million domestically after its fifth weekend. At the worldwide box office, its total is USD 187 million.

    The movie, which was in development for more than 15 years before finally making its way to the screen, is based on the popular Disneyland attraction, where it was one of the original rides when the theme park opened in 1955.

    ‘Jungle Cruise’ follows Dr Lily Houghton (Blunt) as she travels down the Amazon in search of a powerful ancient tree with the help of a skipper named Frank Wolff (Johnson).